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Topic: Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye (Read 4481 times)

I took the plunge today and contacted one of the local councillors regarding reviewing the local law that prohibits beekeeping in town, and also requested permission to take a hive or two into town as an emergency measure as someone is concerned their vegetables are not being pollinated and are dying.

The councillor asked me to put it into an email and said he will bring it up at the next council meeting on April the 11th. This is terrible timing on my part of course as the elections are this weekend. He also looked into it and said it is a grey area.

I made the point that the big city 130km away permits 2 hives per residence, as does the town south of there and some suburbs of capital cities. I said that beehives are impossible to maintain where I live as there are not enough plants that flower regularly. I said bees should affect anyone who eats honey or any fruit or vegetables pollinated by bees. The DPI have said they will provide information to the council if they have concerns and need information.

Dealing with pollies is harder than raiding a beehive without a smoker. Does anyone have any suggestions or pertinent points I should bring up? What is an appropriate response if people are worried about stings and allergies?

If you abide by it, its unlikely you will have a problem or if you do have a problem that any action could be taken against you.

I believe that if you stick by the hive density recommended by the DPI you wont have any trouble from council.

ie If a complaint is lodged with a local. authority, and clearly the beekeeper is not abiding by the code or by planning requirements in relation to a bee site (excluding crown land), council authorities can be responsible for taking appropriate action.

Some really good suggestions Eco and I agree with all you have said, particularly with the more gentle strains. I wish you all the very best of luck with that one Lone, but I really don't see a huge amount of negative reaction from the council as even my 5 year old grand daughter understands the importance of bees in our society and that if we don't have bees, we don't have much of the food we eat, even without me brainwashing her. That said, we are dealing with politicians...

I reckon I'm more likely to die from talking to pollies than beestings, but I guess I just have to wait and see. The town blocks are pretty large, and some of the council folks live on properties. Things are a lot more lenient here than in some cities, such as the places where your fence has to be a certain colour, but it only takes one complainer to make the local laws change. Apparently there are not allowed to be any dogs in a certain area around town, and this is marked with old signs on some corners. So how do you know if you are in that area? It would have only taken one person to step on dog mess to instigate that rule. And someone intentionally jumping off the weir and then suing the council to have the whole area fenced. (I can tell a story about the dog free zone. I first came into town on my pushbike, my kelpie dog on a lead tied onto the bike. I came here for a week 10 years ago. Anyway, someone complained to the cops that I had the dog on the main street, although how you are to get the dog from one side of town to the other beats me. The cops did not tell me but had their liason officer tell my friends who told me. I was not happy. So next time I went to town in a ute I stopped for 5 or 10 minutes to pick a hat up. So I put the dog on feed bags on the ute so she would not be on the street. She had just come from water and it was not a real hot day. Naturally though, two old ladies got her a 16 litre bucket of water and put her on the street with a tarp over her by the time I returned, and had set off to complain to the cops again. You just can't win!)

G,day Lone,Just loved you write up about riding into town on a bike, and dog trotting beside, I reckon Henry Lawson would have loved to write something like that. I can just picture me old school town, actually the locals would not have given it a second thought, that's one unique town, I just loved that old place, I got me edgereracation [I think that how you suppose to spell it] or should I say all me learning from old Richie state, everyone turned up for school bare feet, that is except one or two of the classy shelias. If you ever get onto Lawsons work look up the story about the loaded dog, you will laugh untill your sides split. :camp <<< this is photo of me and me mate down camping on the banks of that small gully that runs past your place, dangling a line trying to catch a few perch. All the best, Lek.

The BBC in England is greatly encouraging bees etc. gOOGLE "bee part of it" YOU GET A LOT OF STUFF.

Ask the council if they are encourage people to grow their own vegetables. It they do, ask what vegetables they like, if no bees, not a lot of veges.

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2010

Bee Part of It!The BBC in the UK is about to launch a project called Bee Part Of It, to help raise awareness of the plight of the UK bees and encourage people to help through education and the planting of 40,000 new bee-friendly spaces.

They're working with the National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, various bee organizations and the project is supported by the award winning BBC2 television wildlife series Springwatch.

One of the things they're doing to help people engage is to run a Bee Part Of It group on Flickr to help aggregate bee collections from across Flickr and encourage people to submit new work to showcase these amazing insects where they live.

I've already agreed to help with the project in any way that I can, and I encourage you all to do the same!

Hello Lek,That's funny you mention Henry Lawson. When I set out on the bike I had nowhere to head for, so to make it interesting, I went to many places he wrote about or lived at, around NSW. I had already read all of his stories I think. I went to the loaded dog hotel of course; to Grenfell where he was born; Leeton where he went to sober up; the old bark school site at Eurunderee and a hut where he lived; Lahey's Creek about which he wrote the Joe and Mary stories based on his aunt and uncle; Mudgee; Ilford, the site of the house that was never built, a story about going mad in the bush; Gulgong where the Henry Lawson museum is; the area around Buckolt's gate; the national library to see if there really was a Reedy River (haven't found it); Sofala but later in a car; Castlereagh etc And Wee Jasper to give his friendly rival Paterson a go too. By the way, I spent $2 on accomodation in 18 months. After I had stayed here a while I went back to Melbourne to pick my van up, and spent a couple of months on the road getting back here. On the way I went to a caravan park and heard the sweetest most haunting sounds I think I have ever heard. I walked around till I found the source, a couple singing a Henry Lawson song. I got my banjo out and we shared a few songs, and I asked if they knew Reedy River. The fellow turned out to be Chris Dempster who wrote the music to it and a musical based around it. I found the music I had and his name was on it.If anyone wants to read Lawson's material, a lot would be on the internet. Here is The Loaded Dog http://alldownunder.com/australian-authors/henry-lawson/loaded-dog.htm

Lek, your photo isn't showing up.

Gef, that's nice that the ole bee is getting some positive attention in the media.

I sent a reminder email to my pollie, and he kindly phoned back. I'm not sure if he took the issue to the council. He said the laws were vague...and apparently they are going to stay that way. He did speak with the mayor and they gave me permission for a couple of hives at the location I specified with an email to verify this. I asked what about if I want to put hives anywhere else in town and he said this would be fine, as long as they were not in the main street and I was sensible about it. So this has certainly solved the immediate problem, though it doesn't help clarify the issue for other people in the future. It is a rural area of course and things are not as strict as in big cities...so long as no one complains.He also thanked me for going through the correct channels, which I appreciate.The bloke will be happy now at least that the vegies he sells will be pollinated, and it will give my hives a chance to survive. I will try to requeen as per the DPI recommendations, if I am able to get any.

All I can say is I suppose vague laws are better than definite laws that prohibit bees!

Qld DPI is great at present, Peter Warhurst has retired and Hamish is working part time (3 days) from the Warrick office & there is an office Lady working 2 days a week.

Peter was a great help, but now even movement permits for interstate are getting harder to get now.Doubt they would visit townsville area, they are not interested in the asian bee atm, they have set the treat to containment, and not planing to eradicate,

cheersMark

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========================================================"At the end of the day, you can't eat money, but it sure helps pay the bills."

From what I heard, it seems to be an attempt to standardize local laws... it is all right to have something on your property unless it becomes a nuisance. I haven't seen any official wording. So instead of there being a law to allow beekeeping, there isn't one to prohibit it. It seems the next town changed in this way from definitely allowing two per property, so the local beeks keep a little quiet about their hives.

Anyway, with the usual mishaps, we shifted two hives to town tonight. One was so heavy two weaklings could only just get it onto the ute. Bees spilled out through the trapdoor even though it was taped with half a roll of tape. I have a big lump on my eyebrow. Then because I have a bad sense of direction we had to turn them the opposite direction to what we'd planned to avoid afternoon sun. Honey is still coming in out of town here, but it won't always be like that. Like Geoff said, this is probably a one in a 100 years honey flow.

When I picked the new queen bee up I had to wait a couple of hours at the hospital for an appointment, and the lady next to me minded the queen for a while. I jokingly said I could take bees to her place. She said a definite no. This week someone gave me a note from her:"yes to bees". It seems she talked about it with people and they told her not to be silly, they wouldn't sting! haha Anyway, it looks like I have two town sites. The only trouble will be stopping at 6..no, 10...hives.

. This week someone gave me a note from her:"yes to bees". It seems she talked about it with people and they told her not to be silly, they wouldn't sting! haha Anyway, it looks like I have two town sites. The only trouble will be stopping at 6..no, 10...hives.

Lone

Aint it a good feeling when someone agrees to let you use a small spot on their land!

I'm surprised how receptive some people out there are to allowing bees on their land seems not all people are paranoid of bees, im still trying to figure out which neighbors im going to approach to take advantage of an annual bloom of riverenia blue bells

Ha ha , its another name for Patersons curse ! also know as Salvation jane, souinds really exotic dosnt it?

The old timer that was teaching me told me a story .... one day he was selling honey at a local market and told a customer he had paterson curse honey for sale , they were against buying it because it is classed as a noxious weed, (it also makes some of the best honey!)They came back to his stall later on and his wife sold some to them as Riverina Blue Bells, they went home none the wiser!